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OwlFancier posted:On the plus side you can definitely tell people you've learned from the experience and taken the necessary steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. The removal of the appendix ensures it can't happen again.
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Jul 27, 2016 02:36
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Expertise in influence tactics and the ability to develop affinity for oneself among his or her subordinates and colleagues.
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Jul 27, 2016 08:08
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Maintains appropriate work/life balance while under pressure.
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Jul 28, 2016 02:28
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The Bananana posted:The removal of the appendix ensures it can't happen again. Glad you got the joke.
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Jul 28, 2016 05:32
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adorai posted:Glad you got the joke. 
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Jul 28, 2016 05:43
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An active sense of humour is a bonus, but not required from leadership.  I'm a smartass and it's gotten me into more trouble than out of it. I hope day 3+ of leadership goes better for you. You can PM me if you want advice on specific scenarios.
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Jul 28, 2016 06:06
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Approximately 80% of leaders are carbon based lifeforms therefore carbon is what makes a leader.
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Jul 29, 2016 01:35
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FreudianSlippers posted:Approximately 80% of leaders are carbon based lifeforms therefore carbon is what makes a leader. Despite my current Norco-influenced state, I'm disinclined to consider this a worthwhile observation, true though it may be.
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Jul 29, 2016 01:43
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Sincerely caring about people.
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Jul 29, 2016 03:26
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Cicero posted:Sincerely caring about people. Hahahaha yeah right. Realtalk: getting people to believe you care about people.
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Jul 29, 2016 03:48
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Slavvy posted:Hahahaha yeah right. The thing I'm always baffled by in lovely leaders is that they can't see how even faking that you care makes a difference in what people are willing to do for you. Good will is the best resource you can cultivate in terms of utility/price.
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Jul 29, 2016 05:51
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Quick coordination and decision making, combined with the ability to monitor many situations at once. This also means you probably need a very good memory. I am in a minor leadership role and I do well at it because I remember lots of little details about every situation my team deals with. This means I can jump back in when needed to assist. And I can track overall trends and decide what I need to be doing to help the team.
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Jul 29, 2016 22:22
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Sylink posted:Quick coordination and decision making, combined with the ability to monitor many situations at once. My short-term memory is tragic--just hilariously bad. Being able to remember things must be an amazing asset, but I was able to cope with building consistent systems around myself. My boss said she could see how busy I was based on how many pens were tucked behind my hairclip. Because I worked across three sites and only had a dedicated desk in one, I carried an expanding folder with all the forms and print-outs I needed. Sometimes carried a laptop. I kept a notepad in my back pocket at all times, and never made a note that didn't have a date and name attached to it. (Admittedly, it took me til my late 20s to get my poo poo together enough to stop being a flake.) During training and event days, I had a list of things to check. Event was stuff like, is everyone physically safe/fed/hydrated? Does everyone know where they need to be? Is there anything to problem-solve? How long til the next shift change? I ran through all the points on a constant rotating basis, always coming back to the basics as soon as problems were resolved. Being a coordinator/leader is actually pretty awesome when you can see a problem and ask someone else to go fix it. At first I always felt a bit guilty for asking someone to fix "my" problem, but most of the time, my volunteers were excited to go do something important. Of course, helps that we were putting on a big awesome festival, not rolling out a software patch. Still, I think having a "home" list of check-in points is a good idea for a manager. On a regular day it might be stuff like taking five seconds to ask your staff members if they're doing okay, looking for blocking issues to resolve, or checking email for client concerns.
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Jul 30, 2016 23:17
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I write stuff down all the time in my cell phone.
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Jul 30, 2016 23:24
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The Bananana posted:I write stuff down all the time in my cell phone. Paper has a bit more of a "I'm listening to you not checking for pokemon," feel, but I usually just say, "hang on, let me write this down," if I'm using a phone to take notes. These days I'm doing a lot of disability advocacy so I still need a paper system, since it's pretty common to get cards and scribbled notes that I don't have time to transcribe into my phone. Technology is great when you're all using it, but if you're working with people who prefer paper (I live in an ocean of tech-challenged parent advocates) make sure you've got a system for merging the paper and the digital. May be less of a problem if your memory isn't trash, though.
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Jul 30, 2016 23:44
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I've always felt that to be a good leader you have to have the respect of your staff first and foremost. They must trust you to protect them when they run into trouble. poo poo rolls down hill. Never let your boss dress down your staff. Your boss needs to come to you and you can criticize your people if you want. If a client criticizes your staff, take over and take the heat. Remember, you know your people and you need to trust them. Never take a clients word over your staff's unless you start to see a pattern. Delegate but make sure that you know a little about everything. Trust your staff, but don't trust too much. Stand up for your people. Take the fall when you have to. Be friendly with your staff, but don't be friends. You can be friends if you have the right personality, but, remember, you may have to fire them tomorrow. Be responsive. Always take the phone call, always answer the email, never hide on a Sunday when a team member is trying to reach you. If you are a good leader, you'll burn out in about 10 years. If you're a bad leader, you can last forever. Yes, your staff is stealing office supplies and other small items. Don't worry about it unless it's excessive.
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Aug 2, 2016 04:19
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mostlygray posted:
Hmm?
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Aug 2, 2016 04:24
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mostlygray posted:I've always felt that to be a good leader you have to have the respect of your staff first and foremost. They must trust you to protect them when they run into trouble. poo poo rolls down hill. Never let your boss dress down your staff. Your boss needs to come to you and you can criticize your people if you want. If a client criticizes your staff, take over and take the heat. Remember, you know your people and you need to trust them. Never take a clients word over your staff's unless you start to see a pattern. This reminds me... never dress someone down in front of an audience. I mean, it's cool to say, "hey Heather, make sure you use blue ink next time so we can tell which papers are originals!" but if you need to have a chat with Heather a second time, or if it's more significant, do it when no one is working in earshot. One of my crappiest bosses was an amazing accountant. She was a wizard with numbers and probably had an IQ well above 100... and the Asperger tendencies to go with it. She'd rip into guys on our team while two or three of us were working behind the same counter. Shoulda kept her in accounting--everyone would have been happier. Another problem in that place (a well-funded homeless shelter) was that administration operated behind locked doors on another floor and had some fairly hilarious ideas about the kinds of things we dealt with on the front lines. Similar stuff happened at the psych facility I did reception with for a year. I type about 100wpm and kept getting tapped to take minutes at board meetings, and did a lot of silent face-palming over the things our "leaders" had no loving clue about it. Neither place had an official communication chain between the front lines and the top brass, and it would have been hugely inappropriate for me to say anything in a meeting.
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Aug 2, 2016 05:58
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Best people I've worked under are those who try and build a team that works well, are willing to teach and respect what they often don't know. Leaders in social situations? I guess it's usually those who know who they are in life, and can have a conversation with a wide variety of people and get along without offending. People with well-rounded interests, positive outlooks and can actually communicate with others. Groups can also be led by lovely, angry or even miserable people but generally, it won't be a group of decent size and people won't hang around for too long.
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Aug 2, 2016 11:02
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The Bananana posted:Hmm? Getting personally invested in your team, their efforts, and their well-being is draining enough on its own. Add in the stress of having to shield them from your bosses as well as each other, coupled with developing them or getting more out of them, and you suddenly have way more actual work than just "team leader". Good leaders who care about their people burn out because they're sacrificing themselves for their team. Bad leaders can freely not care in their own unique way and alleviate some of that burden.
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Aug 3, 2016 11:05
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Pixelante posted:Still, I think having a "home" list of check-in points is a good idea for a manager. It works for pilots and surgeons. Apparently checklists save lives!
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Aug 3, 2016 13:10
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MEDS CURE SCHIZOS posted:Getting personally invested in your team, their efforts, and their well-being is draining enough on its own. I get that, but what I mean to ask is why is that your endgame? To burn out, I mean. How do you be a good leader AND give yourself either longevity in your position or ability to move up? Because both of those seem more desirable than 10 years then burn out.
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Aug 3, 2016 14:52
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MEDS CURE SCHIZOS posted:Getting personally invested in your team, their efforts, and their well-being is draining enough on its own. This is situational, not universal. Everyone burns out in a toxic work environment. Admittedly, most traditionally-run offices seem to be pretty toxic.
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Aug 3, 2016 22:11
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The Bananana posted:I get that, but what I mean to ask is why is that your endgame? To burn out, I mean. How do you be a good leader AND give yourself either longevity in your position or ability to move up? Because both of those seem more desirable than 10 years then burn out. It's kind of just how it works. I've been in management for about 15 years now. It was fun for the first 10, now I'm just tired. The problem is that one is always promoted to the level of their incompetence. The best thing is to try to stay below that. If you want to run the whole company, stay back as a VP. If you want to be a VP, stay back as a department head. If you want to be a department head, stay back as a team manager. If you want to be a team manager, stay back as a team lead. If you want to be a team lead, just stay as regular team member. It's weird, but I don't know a single competent manager that is happy with their life. The problem, as was said before, is that good managers just simply work too hard. When I was a department head at a previous call center in tech support, I never even had a chance to truly mentor my staff as I was too busy backing them up with inter-departmental issues and delivering reports to the VP of Operations. I was also constantly jumping on the phone myself as I had asked for 12 FTE's and was only allowed to have 7. I was eventually able to beg/borrow/steal to get up to 10, but it was tremendously draining and we could never get on top of the workload. Management is hell. Full stop.
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Aug 4, 2016 12:14
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I've spent the last six-odd years recruiting and evaluating leadership candidates, so I have a few opinions on this topic. I interview about 150 prospective leaders per year out of an applicant pool of over 1500. These thoughts are applicable to my industry. Are they applicable to yours? I don't know! Wherever and whenever possible, effective leaders will use a collaborative decision making process to both utilize the expertise of their teammates as well as to cultivate team member buy-in. It's one thing for a leader to say "We'll grow X factor of our business by Y amount, and we'll do it using Z strategy." It's another thing for a leader to facilitate team meetings in such a way that the team collectively sets targets and determines how to reach them. Good leaders should be asking, not telling. It is important for a leader to ensure that their team has a common vision so that everyone knows what they are working for and what the goals are. This vision is determined collaboratively, so that all team members feel they had a voice in the decision-making process. If the team collaboratively decides to grow the business by 10% by, say, spending more time promoting the business on social media, team members will feel invested in this goal because it is a goal they set for themselves, and they will work harder to achieve that goal. Good leadership will build strong teams. This doesn't mean going to a ropes course. It means ensuring that their teams are communicating and collaborating appropriately and effectively, horizontally and vertically. They will ensure their team has the time and space to meet, communicate, and collaborate. They will protect and celebrate this time. Leadership must ensure the team stays committed to the task at hand. Returning to our 10% growth example, leadership must celebrate successes. For every point of growth, management should give people a jeans day or pizza party or bring in champagne (yes this happened at a company I worked at once), whatever is appropriate to the organization and industry. Leadership must regularly and collaboratively evaluate the team's performance as it relates to the established goals and make adjustments as necessary to ensure the objectives are successfully attained. Effective leaders recognize the fact that they can't know everything, can't do everything, and can't be everywhere at once. They delegate appropriately. They recognize that they are almost certainly not the smartest person on their team, and they actively seek new team members who are smarter or better than them. They then give these people the time, tools, and resources they need to accomplish the task and trust them to do their jobs well. They regularly check in with team members to monitor performance and ensure that the team has what they need to accomplish their goals. They welcome and act upon feedback they receive from their team. Let's talk about burnout! Good leaders recognize the fact that burnout is inevitable, but also recoverable. They cultivate a support network of peers, colleagues, and mentors whom they can rely on for advice or even plain old empathy when they run into problems. Having a mentor or colleague that you can vent to, bounce ideas off of, or seek advice from is critical to becoming and remaining an effective leader. No man is an island and good leaders understands this. As a leader, it's important to understand that lack of performance in a team member does not necessarily indicate an unwillingness to perform. People have lives outside of work, and try as you might your personal issues can and will impact your work performance. A leader who has cultivated trust in their team members is more likely to be able to have honest conversations with team members to identify issues that might be impacting their work and to find ways to address them. Are there personality issues that are creating friction? Are their personal or family health issues that are causing an employee to be less than their best? A good leader will do whatever is possible to help address these situations rather than simply documenting a good team member out the door. Great leaders are advocates for their team. If a new policy is handed down from upper management that has a negative impact on their team, they push back. They will make the case to management for why the new policy is detrimental and they will offer alternative solutions that provide a win/win for their team and upper management. In the event that the manager cannot change the policy, they will collaborate with their team members to determine the best way to implement the new policy. It's the difference between "Just do it" and "What do you think is the best way to implement this?" Again, this process creates buy-in among the team members. Leaders recognize that no one knows the work better than the people who actually do it, and they value their opinions and insights. Good leaders are invested in growing their team members. They recognize that their role is to help their team members succeed just as it is their team member's role to help their leader succeed. They provide them relevant professional development and training opportunities. They incentivize participate in PD, they pair struggling team members with highly effective team members from whom they can learn. They provide regular and public praise. They provide clear career growth opportunities. Should they ever need to criticize a team member, they do so in private, never in public. They exist to build their people up, not tear them down. They are constantly in the process of identifying and cultivating future leaders. Leaders must recognize that they can and will make mistakes. The most common and most damaging mistakes a leader can make are in the interpersonal interactions they have with their team members. They are cognizant of the fact that a harsh word or even simple misunderstanding can damage team member performance and morale. They accept responsibility and apologize when they say or do something that might offend or insult a team member, and so so publicly where appropriate. Ok, I'm done for now. Whew. [To nip a common misunderstanding in the bud: the collaborative mindset is a common theme throughout this post. Obviously, the collaborative process is not appropriate for every single decision that needs to be made. If the fire alarm is going off, you don't discuss it in committee, you tell everyone to evacuate the building. However, where possible and appropriate, decisions should be made after getting feedback from all stakeholders.]
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Aug 4, 2016 20:06
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Thanks for your contribution! Very good info. For you, and everyone, is promotion the cure for burnout? (ps. I want to reiterate that this thread is for everyone to share ideas and ask for advice in. I feel like I'm the only one benefiting from all this great info. I'm sure that's not the case, so feel free to speak up if you have any questions or whatnot.)
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Aug 4, 2016 20:10
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The Bananana posted:For you, and everyone, is promotion the cure for burnout? As a part of my evaluation process, candidates are asked directly if they will ever burnout. Many candidates, especially what I call the "young go-getters" who have yet to actually serve in a leadership role, have what I consider an unrealistic assessment of their own resilience and deny that they will ever experience burnout. They think because they love the work they've been doing so far, or whatever, they will love leading others in that same work, and their initial answer reflects this. "No, I won't, I am too skilled/energetic/in love with the work." Candidates who can't admit they can burn out are rejected and because I am a nice guy I give them an out. I define burnout for them as "the emotional, physical, or mental fatigue that arises as a result of [doing the work.]" That often but not always changes their tune. "Well, sure, I might get tired, I might feel fatigue." So I ask them what they might do to recover from that. Answers I don't care for are taking a vacation, exercising, spending time with family, praying, etc. People do all that stuff already as a part of simply living their life. What you want to look for are people who build and rely on that peer/mentor network I mentioned earlier. Sometimes you just need to vent your frustrations at someone who's been in the same boat. Sometimes you need someone to give you a tip or pointer or perspective you hadn't considered before. Sometimes you need to realize you're not delegating and relying on your team experts enough. Sometimes you need advice from someone who's got more experience under their belt. If you're promoted into a role where you'll experience that fatigue, which every role has, and you don't know how to deal with and recover from it, you'll just find yourself in the doldrums all over again.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:37
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gizmojumpjet posted:Ok, I'm done for now. Whew. Soooo... you know anyone on Vancouver Island who's hiring? Asking for a... uh... friend.
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Aug 4, 2016 23:59
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When looking for jobs as a people manager what search terms should I be using? I'm curious to see what opportunities are out there outside my current industry, but searching for manager positions just yields a bunch of project management or software dev. management positions which isn't really what I want.
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Aug 6, 2016 06:27
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Things got dicey fast. I feel like every employee I have is my "frenemy".
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Aug 17, 2016 20:46
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The Bananana posted:Things got dicey fast. I feel like every employee I have is my "frenemy". Try to work a few extra "thank yous" to your work day? What's got them defensive, you think?
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Aug 17, 2016 21:49
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Pixelante posted:Try to work a few extra "thank yous" to your work day? What's got them defensive, you think? Is it bad that I think they're trying to see what they can get away with?
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Aug 17, 2016 21:58
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It's a little bit of a cat and mouse game. Do you remember that old Warner Bros cartoon where the wolf would chase the sheep all day long, and then at 5 o'clock a whistle would blow, the wolf and the sheep would get their lunchbox, walk to the time clock, clock out, and say "see ya tomorrow, Steve", "Have a good night Bob" and go home to their families, only to clock in again the next day and be the fiercest of enemies at 9am? There is some reality to that. Not that your employees are your fiercest enemies, just that it's kinda their job to see what they can get away with, and it's kinda your job to keep on their rear end and make them work harder. Don't get obsessed about this part, and be sure to follow everyone else's advice about motivating employees, and leading the team, etc.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:27
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Will trying to deviate from the status quo, in an attempt to get closer to ideal conditions lead to me getting stabbed to death by my own?
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Aug 17, 2016 22:31
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The Bananana posted:Is it bad that I think they're trying to see what they can get away with? It's important for you to set the expectations for their performance and behavior. Have you done that yet?
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Aug 18, 2016 16:30
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gizmojumpjet posted:It's important for you to set the expectations for their performance and behavior. Have you done that yet? No. I'm being meek. I'm aware I'm being meek. I'm having difficulty confronting these issues. Employees that are doing the right thing, and have the right attitude, I'm getting along well with, but I suppose that's not really the point, is it?
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Aug 18, 2016 16:44
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The Bananana posted:No. I'm being meek. I'm aware I'm being meek. I'm having difficulty confronting these issues. That's right. It's normal for people to test their boundaries. Very clearly letting them know what the boundaries are really helps people move past that phase. It's hard to give specific advice without knowing all the details and particulars but you might want to consider having a team meeting where you lay out the expectations. This doesn't have to be some sort of confrontational reading of the riot act. Frame it in the sense of getting everyone on the same page regarding the duties and expectations, etc. Afterwards follow it up in individual meetings with people who don't exhibit the behaviors and performance you're looking for. Don't do this immediately, give them a little time to come around, but do it if they don't. If you let a bad situation go for too long it will take that much longer to right the ship again.
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Aug 18, 2016 20:14
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gizmojumpjet posted:If you let a bad situation go for too long it will take that much longer to right the ship again. Agreed, and I've seen it happen to other before, (and lol, I remember saying back then, "I won't let that happen to me when I'm in charge"  ) so I know how important it is to address and correct quickly.
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Aug 18, 2016 20:50
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This thread is good stuff.
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Aug 18, 2016 22:34
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You would think that laying down the law would be the dick thing to do, but people crave it. I personally abhor the thing where we sit down and meet with 30 people so we can yell at the 5 people dicking around. Pull aside the people who need to have the law laid down, and let them know the expectations. You don't have to be a jerk, but be clear and firm. If they disagree, hear them out. Then tell them the way it's going to be.
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Aug 18, 2016 23:20
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